In a pivotal week for Neo, co-founders Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang have announced their intention to meet in Hong Kong to address matters concerning the Neo financial report and the Neo Foundation treasury. The discussions will also focus on delineating roles and responsibilities for various projects, including Neo N3, Neo X, and SpoonOS.
During this week, Zhang unveiled a preliminary outline for Neo 3.9, marking the first significant protocol update since his return to core development. This update brings a range of enhancements aimed at developers, such as ABI-based smart contract invocation, improved local contract storage, and a standardized REST API server plugin intended to streamline integrations. On the protocol front, a newly introduced Treasury native contract will enhance on-chain fund management, while a free contract whitelist aims to reduce costs associated with essential infrastructure and user interactions.
Furthermore, the release will incorporate mechanisms for managing frozen funds through formal recovery processes. Performance and stability will see improvements through various optimizations and enhanced logging capabilities. Importantly, while fully compatible with Neo N3, version 3.9.0 will also integrate select features from the upcoming Neo 4 roadmap and is set to be deployed on TestNet prior to its MainNet launch.
In other developments, Neo and SpoonOS have announced Tokyo as the next destination on the Scoop AI Hackathon global tour, marking the sixth event in this series that focuses on the intersection of blockchain and AI technologies. Scheduled for January 31 at MIDORI.so Shibuya / CryptoBase, the Tokyo Bowl will feature a one-day hackathon centered around idea generation.
Additionally, SpoonOS participated in a panel discussion titled “Privacy, Payments & AI: Unlocking A2A Payments with x402z.” Meanwhile, Vaulten has initiated an event where participants can earn 15 GAS by solving new fragments in its on-chain word-puzzle game, which is live until January 24. Rewards will be distributed within 48 hours of the event”s conclusion.
Frank Coin also engaged the community by hosting a GasBot trivia contest on the FrankCoin channel of the NeoF1 Discord server, offering 3 GAS to participants. Moreover, the platform provided a brief update on World of Elements, highlighting the addition of a character skill tree to the skill point menu.
In case you missed it, NNT released Episode 105 of The Smart Economy Podcast featuring Tomasz Stanczak, co-executive director at the Ethereum Foundation. The episode dives into how internal restructuring is fostering development and ecosystem growth, the significance of Layer 2 diversity and interoperability, institutional approaches to tokenization, and the Ethereum Foundation”s priorities as it looks ahead to 2026.
NNT also hosted Crypto Coffee and Blockchain Beer Spaces #80, where discussions revolved around the enduring value of censorship resistance, the role of energy as backing for money, and insights gained one year post-launch regarding the Quai ecosystem.
Mark your calendars for January 23, when NNT will host CC & BB #81 on The Smart Economy Podcast”s official X account.
